A psychological horror film establishes seemingly normal settings and characters to create an unsettling atmosphere. Characters are often left undefined at first to add mystery. The main character is usually a woman to emphasize vulnerability. Common character types include young adults, the mentally or emotionally unstable, goths, and detectives. Music, sounds of pain and suffering, and a slow, well-paced plot enhance tension and suspense. Low lighting, fast editing during dramatic scenes, and handheld camera shots further unsettle the audience. Common iconography includes haunted houses, symbols of death, masks, screaming victims, and phallic weapons.

1. Psychological Horror

2. How does the audience know it is a
psychological horror?
• A major clue that a film is a psychological
horror is often that the setting would be
normal and a familiar everyday event where
tragedy will occur.

3. Characters
• It is important to establish a character, but in a
psychological horror film it is important to establish
their traits and features slow by not revealing their face
or their opinions and beliefs at the start.
• Characters can also be figments of the imagination or
things which do not exist in real life, for example ghosts
or hallucinations.
• The main hero or character is usually a women. This
emphasises the stereotypical view that women are
more fearful than men and are more likely to react
more to small events such as footsteps, things moving
and therefore they are more vulnerable.

4. Normal characters within a
psychological horror are.
• Young adults or a child.
• Mentally unstable.
• Emotionally unstable.
• Dark, gothic.
• A detective or other authority figure.
• An unsuspecting partner or friend.

5. Music and sound
• Music can often enhance a psychological horror. It can
create moments of suspense through high pitched noises
or the sound of footsteps approaching the victim. It can
also be used in contrast to what is going on.
• Instrumental music is often used which adds to the tension
created by the storyline, violins and other classical
instruments. The music usually builds up to a climax to help
entice the audience on intense part of the films.
• Psychological horrors also use the sound of people in pain
to create atmosphere. Sounds of people screaming,
struggling and suffering, gun shot wounds are typically
used.

6. Plots
• It is conventional for psychological horror to
be well paced also for the plot to take its time.
This will keep the audience engaged on the
film.

7. Lighting
• Low key lighting is used to create fear and
tension, a lot of obscurity. It is used to create
enigma and mystery, it also helps to create
and unsetting atmosphere that builds tension.
• Because of this moments of bright light or
colour often are the climax.

8. Editing
• Fast pace editing is often used to emphasise
drama and heighten tension.
• Slow paced editing is also used in particularly
emotional parts. This allows more
concentration on the character and their
suffering and pain.
• Hand held camera shots make the diegetic
sounds like footsteps and echoes lets the
audience fell apart of the action.

9. Iconography of a psychological horror
• The haunted house (forbidden chamber)
• Symbols of death
• The disfigured face or mask
• The screaming victim (in modern horror the
‘final girl’)
• The phallic murder weapon: knife, stake,
chainsaw.